Remember.....

Mum grew up in the little town of Teluk Intan. Her mother had met a motor mechanic then and married him. So mum and her brother grew up with a bunch of half sisters and brothers. Obviously, her brother being a male was okay....but mum has to do all the house work and cooking and also to take care of all her half siblings. According to mum, her mother was an autocrat....anything she said was law. Instead of being a daughter, she was made a servant. She had to slaughter tortoises and boil them with herbs for her stepfather to drink who always abuse her with words. He had never appreciated all that my mum had done for the family and also part of her inheritance that she had brought into the family.
When she was twenty years old, she was forced to marry a guy she doesn't even like....and bore him few children. After ten years,she just left everything and went to find her own life. She sold sweet potatoes to earn a living. She was just going into the next phase of her life.
I have always ask her why she didn't go against her mother's wishes and endure such hell for ten years? In those days, no one go against their parents or there will be consequences she told me. I know that it's true because her own brother never came to see her.....she went to the grave without any reconciliation with her brother. As for me, i could never understand this sort of a relationship.....letting someone rule your life even from the grave.........

Remembering....

After a marathon viewing of the film " The Little Nyonya", i thought of what my mum told me about her own life. My mum was born just after World War l...that was 1918 in Kampar, a small town in Perak. She was privileged enough to be born into a quite well to do family. He father's family owned a well known restaurant in that town and also had timberland concessions. Unfortunately, her father died when she was three years old and her younger brother a year old. Her mother, being a young widow, was at the mercy of her in-laws. However, she was brave enough to defy them and brought a case against them. Subsequently she was awarded sixty thousand dollars but had to leave the family. Her young mother took her two young children then went to Chenderiang and Tapah. My mum remembered her childhood days at these two places very vividly.....the waterfall and the river where the water was so cold. The waterfall is still there today but the river water is not so cold nowadays. Meanwhile at these two little towns her mother tried to start a restaurant business but was unsuccessful. So they moved again and came to Teluk Anson....as Teluk Intan was called then.
In Teluk Anson, they stayed at Sungai Nibong...the place is still called by that name today but have changed so much in recent years. That old wooden shophouse where my mum grew up is still there. It is now an abandoned building and it will be demolished soon to make way for a new one. My mum passed away this year and it looks as if the house where she grew up will also have the same fate as her. My mum told me lots of stories of her growing up years and also her many friends. I would like to record her stories so as to remind myself of her strength and courage and to draw lessons from her life..........

Remembering....

Time really flies. This is already the month of November and Christmas is just round the corner. In the neighbourhood, three families are remembering the passing of their loved ones. Two young men have gone home to be with their Maker almost a year ago and the other one almost a month ago. All of them young men......just about to embark on life's journey and their lives ended in such tragic circumstances. We always think that heart attacks are for the older folks not young people. How wrong we are. We hear of more young men succomb to this disease than older men. Just can't seemed to find the answer.
Is it because of the food that we are consuming these days...especially those fried foods. Children nowadays are introduced to so many varieties of fast food by their parents. My niece and nephew just love the fried chicken, the burgers and the fries....and also those frizzy drinks. I just wondered whether at such tender age, the clogging of the blood vessels have already started. I also noticed that parents tend to take their children to these fast food haunts to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries....or the passing of their exams.
November is the month children in most schools have their end of the year parties. The first dish on the menu will be KFC...fast and easy, every pupil get a piece of finger licking chicken. Every one is happy as there is no necessity of toiling in the kitchen. Other choices are burgers and pizzas. We have to move with the times so they say....who wants to cook? Parents are too busy to do the cooking and you can't expect the teacher to cook for 40 pupils........